MICK Cook was a disappointed coach after York City Knights' home campaign ended in defeat - but the loss did not detract from the team's achievements.

Workington completed a league double over Cook's men with a 20-18 win at Huntington Stadium, but the Knights were already assured of the LHF National League Two title and sole promotion place.

Cook said: "I like to win games and we prepared a team to win so it was very disappointing to lose. But you can't take away the promotion place. There has not been many by the club in the past and it's fantastic for all of us.

"There was no pressure to win but as a professional team we wanted to win and finish with that five-point advantage over the next team.

"We spoke straight away after the Hunslet game (the win last week which guaranteed the title) about finishing with two wins and being strong even though we were already promoted."

The Knights, who finish their season away to Sheffield on Friday, led 18-4 before Town came back in the last 15 minutes.

"I think it was a very physical game, both sides were committed and the hot conditions made it difficult and a few errors crept in," said Cook.

"We lost both our centres to injury - Dan Potter had a bicep tear and Neil Law was knocked out in an accidental clash - and they are key positions so we had a bit of adversity. But I still thought we had enough in the tank.

"We tried to make things happen rather than stick to what we knew and a couple of errors led to some tries and they got their tails up. They're a quality side.

"I thought we did very well in the first half even though we made one or two errors. We defended really strongly and we were in control at half-time."

Updated: 10:47 Monday, September 05, 2005